What Does Jeremy Think?

Jeremy Heywood and the Making of Modern Britain

By: Suzanne Heywood

Narrated by: Helen Llyod

Length: 20 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The Sunday Times best seller.

As a young civil servant, Jeremy Heywood’s insightful questioning of the status quo pushed him to the centre of political power in this country for more than 25 years.

He directly served four Prime Ministers in various roles including as the first and only Permanent Secretary of 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Secretary and the Head of the Home Civil Service. He was at the centre of every crisis from the early 1990s until 2018 and most of the key meetings. Invariably, when faced with a new policy initiative a Prime Minister’s first response would be: ‘but what does Jeremy think?’

Jeremy worked up until his death, retiring just a few days before he died from lung cancer in October 2018. This book began as a joint effort between Jeremy and his wife Suzanne – working together in the last months of his life. Suzanne completed the work after his death.

In a time of political uncertainty, this extraordinary book offers an unforgettable and unprecedented insight into political decision-making, crisis management and the extraordinary role of the civil service. It is also a moving celebration of Heywood’s life in the beating heart of UK politics, and a man who for so long was the most powerful non-famous name in Britain.

©2020 Suzanne Heywood (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Suzanne and Jeremy Heywood have created a marvellous book which lives, breathes and talks to its reader. There is insight and humanity on every page. It will be a goldmine for historians of government as it really is and it will shine for as long as anyone is interested in Whitehall." (Peter Hennessy)

"The words Civil Servant seem too dry to describe greatness. But Jeremy was a great man whom I look back upon with a sense of pride in what he achieved and a sense of privilege in having achieved at least some of it together." (Tony Blair)

"A collapsing pound, stock exchange crash, leaks, scandals, sackings, banks going under, capital flight, sometimes all in the same morning. Jeremy didn’t need crisis, but crisis needed him." (Gordon Brown)